Abilities are special effects, powers, or behaviors found on cards. For spell cards, the ability describes the total effect of playing that card, while for minion and weapon cards, abilities are special effects or powers additional to the basic functions of the card. Abilities may be described in the card's text, or granted by enchantments.

Hearthstone features a large range of abilities. Abilities may trigger in response to certain events, provide ongoing effects to certain minions, or grant special powers or characteristics. Certain often-used abilities are written in memorable shorthand form using bold-faced keywords on the card, such as Battlecry or Deathrattle, while other abilities are written out with their full description in the card text.

Minion abilities granted by card text or enchantments can be removed using the Silence ability. However, abilities granted to minions through aura effects generated by other cards can only be removed by neutralizing the aura-generating card.

When multiple abilities are triggered simultaneously, the order of events is generally determined by the order in which the cards were played or summoned. For example, if two minions with Deathrattle die in the same combat, the minion which was summoned first will activate its Deathrattle first, followed by the minion which was summoned second. All triggered abilities will take place before the current phase of activity concludes.

Although some abilities are only present on cards playable by a specific heroclass, these cards can be played by any hero that manages to acquire them in an ongoing game (e.g. through Thoughtsteal or Mind Vision).

Keywords are specific bold-faced words or terms printed on cards which specify a unique power or behavior without any explicit description. Mousing over a minion card with a keyword ability will generate a text display describing the ability. For a more detailed exploration of each keyword, and a list of related cards, click on the respective section headings.

For a discussion of why keywords do not exist for some often-seen behaviors in cards, see the trivia section.

You have {X} less mana next turn. This effect is activated when the card is played from the hand, and typically allows a powerful card to be played for a low mana cost this round, at the price of reduced mana next turn. Found only on shaman cards.

Similar to Secrets, Quests are a special type of spell card that does not take effect until certain requirements are met, triggering its effect. Unlike Secrets, Quests can be seen by the opponent, and the conditions must be met by the possessing player rather than the opponent. Each deck can include only one Quest, which will be automatically included in the player's mulligan. All Quests are legendary.

A special type of spell card that remains hidden until its trigger condition occurs, revealing it and triggering its effect. As a rule Secrets can only be activated during the opponent's turn, but some exceptions activate at the start of the player's next turn. Only one of any given Secret can be in play for a given player at a time.

Removes all card text, enchantments, and abilities from the target minion, except for auras provided by external cards in play. Silence does not prevent enchantments and abilities from being applied to said minion afterwards, however.

Minions with Stealth may not be the target of enemy attacks, spells or abilities until they attack or deal damage. Once they attack or deal damage, Stealth is removed. Minions with Stealth can still be affected by AoE spells such as Consecration, and randomly targeted spells such as Arcane Missiles.

Reveals a random minion from each player's deck. If the player who initiated the Joust produces a minion with a higher mana cost, they win the Joust, activating a secondary effect. Both minions are then shuffled back into their respective decks.

Keywords were specifically designed by the developers to help players to quickly recognise when a large number of minions have exactly the same ability, such as minions with Taunt, saving time spent reading each individual card's text. However, while keywords make it easier in cases where they are frequently encountered, when such examples are rare, keywords can actually serve to make understanding cards harder, requiring players to mouse over cards in understand to examine their abilities. The case of the "Destroy any minion damaged by this minion" effect was cited by Ben Brode in 2014 as an example where the developers could have added a keyword, but chose instead to simply describe the ability in full, since it is was originally only found on 2 cards.[2] Senior Producer Yong Woo explained:

"You know, keywords are double-edged swords. On the one hand, it really condenses information. I tell you Deathrattle and you know what it is right away. I tell somebody off the street Deathrattle and he is going to be like "What are you... selling me a snake?". They will not know what I am talking about, so it is a balance we have to reach between condensing the information and making too hard a set of vocabulary for new players to understand. It is something we continue to work on."[3]

Ben Brode has also stated that when a keyword conveys more than one behaviour rule, it can be hard for players to remember these from just the keyword.[4] For example, Taunt and Charge immediately convey that the minion possesses a single, specific ability.[4] In contrast, the "elusive" ability is tricky because it has more than one effect,[4] protecting the minion from both spells and hero powers, but not Battlecries or attacks. Ben Brode has stated that the elusive ability was "right on the razor's edge" regarding whether or not to create a keyword for it.[4]

Yong Woo has stated that it is possible in the future that keywords may be added for currently existing abilities such as the "elusive" ability of the Faerie Dragon, Laughing Sister and Spectral Knight - should there come to be a sufficient number of minions with that behaviour in the game.[3] Other card text for which keywords were considered, and for which keywords may be added in the future, include on-draw effects and Joust.[5]

New keywords

Following its launch, the game did not see the addition of any new keywords until The Grand Tournament, when Inspire was introduced. Inspire was initially represented by the text "Whenever you use your Hero Power do X", but the developers felt that replacing it with a new keyword would both save space on cards and also highlight the new mechanic as a key feature of the new expansion. They also felt that the game had been around long enough that it was acceptable to introduce a new keyword.[6] However, the developers did not choose to make the same expansion's new Jousting mechanic into a keyword, partly because of a lack of synergy with established keywords, and partly because it is "more in depth" than other keywords.[7][8] Inspire also featured on a larger number of cards than Joust.[9]

A new keyword would not be added until Journey to Un'Goro, with Adapt. A few months earlier, the long-standing "Poison" ability ("Destroy any minion damaged by this minion") was formalised, with the addition of the Poisonous keyword. The change was purely cosmetic, but appears to have been due to the introduction of a number of new Poisonous cards with Un'Goro, therefore justifying the creation of a keyword for the long-standing effect.

As the game grows, the developers feel increasingly open to adding new keywords.[10] When the game was new, Ben Brode says, the developers "really wanted to keep ourselves in check as far as the number of keywords we added and how quickly we added them",[10] but since The Grand Tournament have begun adding keywords quite regularly.

The one exception to the general rules for keywords is Mega-Windfury, a keyword added with Goblins vs Gnomes for just one minion: the uncollectible V-07-TR-0N, summoned by Mimiron's Head's triggered effect. However, this keyword is followed on the card by the italicised text, "(Can attack four times a turn.)", essentially negating the use of the Mega-Windfury keyword. The redundancy can be explained by the obvious similarity between Windfury and Mega-Windfury, with the use of the keyword aiding players in immediately understanding the card's ability. The humorous keyword "Charrrrrge" was similarly added exclusively to the card Skycap'n Kragg with The Grand Tournament, but served only as a cosmetic variant on Charge.

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